Saturday, November 03, 2007

Friendships that never change

Yesterday my best friend got married.....(More on that topic later. I want to wait until I have my pictures ready to upload, so you can experience the full beauty and sheer love of the day.) She invited, as we all have, some of our closest high school friends. There is a small group of us that became friends back in seventh grade, and remained friends all through high school and beyond....

We've been through a lot together--birthday parties, confirmations, graduations, weddings, births, deaths....and we've created and maintained some of our own traditions. Back when we all lived within driving distance of one another we went to the same restaurant every summer before school started. Now that life has scattered us to various states we get together once a year--sometimes over a long weekend (Veteran's day was popular for awhile) and sometimes for the wedding of a friend. Another tradition (bizarre though it may sound) began one band/choir trip years and years ago. We take pictures of our feet. (I know, I know, I have no idea how this started, but it did.) And now, I have pictures of our feet through the years- on band trips, at weddings, at showers....for my wedding they took the picture (without me, my Mom was my stand in) and for my friend's wedding this weekend, we did it again. And it is a measure of how long we've been doing this that after the picture the bride said, "I feel that there are feet missing." Because there were feet missing from our photo--the feet of a friend who is just days away from giving birth.

There is something to be said for friendships that are so comfortable. That feel just as cozy as the clothes you slip into once you get home from work. The kind of friendships that, no matter how much time has passed since you've last talked, you pick up right where you left off, and it is as if no time has passed at all. There's never a readjustment period when we are together....never any awkward let's-catch-up-on-our-lives-in-five-seconds- or-less when we first get together again....never any weirdness at all. Instead we slip right back into conversations and jokes and stories as if we had just seen each other yesterday in the halls of our high school. Although the stories and the jokes have changed, the feelings stay the same.

None of us could have predicted--way back in the uncomfortable stages of flashlight tag and braces, report cards and first kisses--that these friendships would last a lifetime. Yet somehow, they have. So to you, Ness, Di, Lyn, and Amy--and to the men you have married and brought into our little fold- Rob, Jakel, Chuck and Greg-- to you I say, I love you all from the bottom of my heart. My life is better for having you in it.

1 comment:

Dianna said...

How sweet and how true!!! We had a great time and are blessed to have such great friends to share life's adventures with!! :)